In this project-based environmental education program, we are employing the Community Problem Solving (CmPS) method of instruction to inform our curriculum development. Our communities have no shortage of environmental issues, and our goal is to help you provide your students with the knowledge and enthusiasm to address these head on. Below, you will find background information on CmPS as well as a general sequence for integrating it into your classroom. As with other learner-initiated instructional formats, there is no “one size fits all” list of curricular instructions for a given CmPS investigation. The particulars of your investigation and, more important, the investigations of your students will be specific to your (and your students’) topics of inquiry.

To be successful, you’ll have to commit to a bit of work – a bit of customization for each of your students (or student teams). Because CmPS programs rely on a unique situation occurring in your students’ communities, we are unable to design a program that speaks directly to that problem. Rather, our intent is to provide you and your students with lesson plans and activities that build general content knowledge and skills within four broad environmental education topic areas:

1. Air
2. Land
3. Freshwater Environments
4. Marine Environments

We encourage you to challenge your students to take their newly acquired content knowledge and use it to solve a problem (with your support) that matters to them and to their communities.

Our goal for this overview section is to make you comfortable with the CmPS process so that you’ll be willing to try it in your classroom. We think you (and your students) will be glad you did.

About Community Problem Solving

The Community Problem Solving (CmPS) process originated from The Torrance Center for Creative Studies in Athens, Georgia. In a CmPS curriculum, students are assigned to workgroups and asked to identify and offer solutions to problems in their own communities. The process may work like this:

1. Students are asked to brainstorm a large, nebulous problem from their own social, natural, or cultural experiences.
2. Students are asked to identify sub-problems that contribute to the large, nebulous problem.
3. Upon identifying the most important causes of the problem, students are asked to implement actual solutions to these problems.

This practical process reveals the differences of viewpoint, opinion, life experience, social injustices, and social responsibility that exist in the community. Success is achieved only by considering the input and mutual benefits for all. When teachers and students use community problems as a foundation for the curriculum, meaningful dialog is achieved through the contributions of the participants. The successful group is able to process differing viewpoints and arrive at consensual societal, cultural, and ecological solutions that benefit all.

Engaging students in the examination of community problems is an effective way to improve achievement and attitudes because it helps students see that learning is a tool that may be utilized to question power and to achieve positive results. Because local examples (with which all students should be familiar) are used, group members are able to authoritatively consider and challenge the opinions of one another. People are simply more likely to converse about a subject if they feel they are competent in that subject.

An added benefit is that the dialogue has the potential to create mutual compassion and understanding because students connect and share their feelings and thoughts about community issues while they learn content. John Dewey expressed it best: “The only true education comes through the stimulation of the child’s powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself. Through these demands he is stimulated to act as a member of a unity, to emerge from his original narrowness of action and feeling, and to conceive of himself from the standpoint of the welfare of the group to which he belongs.”

Kirshner, Strobel and Fernandez describe the power of CmPS as follows: “Participatory action research has potential as an educational strategy for promoting skills and dispositions of citizenship. Through its focus on skills of data gathering, teamwork, public speaking, problem solving, and civic participation, this type of program develops competencies associated with ‘public work’.”

CmPS asks youth to work together to study about and act on concerns that affect their communities. It offers them a chance to deal with problems in creative, constructive ways, and to get first hand experiences in the workings of a local democracy where they are treated as thoughtful resources rather than as needy clients. CmPS will have particular resonance for youth who, by virtue of their ethnicity or socio-economic status (or both), must cope with inequities or discrimination in their everyday lives.

Effectiveness of Community Problem Solving in the Classroom

It should not be surprising that more and more schools have come to recognize the value of using the community as a curricular context, thus helping students to become self-motivated, independent learners and achievers within that community. It shouldn’t be surprising, because CmPS works. “A recent study of 40 U.S. schools that have adopted the social, cultural, and natural features of local environments as the context for learning reported that students act more independently and responsibly, display pride in and ownership of their accomplishments, exhibit improved discipline and self-control, and academically outperform their traditionally instructed peers.”

The Community Problem Solving Continuum

Below is a rubric that you may use to identify where your students are along the CmPS Inquiry Continuum, as well as where you may be able to take them. This continuum extends from a fully structured to a fully open inquiry process that may be used in your classroom. Your goals should be to identify where your students are now and to determine ways to move them towards more open inquiry processes over the course of their projects, if they aren’t there already.

Inquiry with a dash of Innovation

CmPS is an opportunity for students to learn and practice strong “science habits of mind” as well as “innovation behaviors” that are key skills for 21st century learners. Therefore, in addition to linking lessons with national science standards, we will also point out opportunities for students to exhibit innovative behaviors, such as:

• Engaged Inquiry
• Status Quo Questioning
• Idea Generation
• Communication/Collaboration
• Problem-Solving
• Risk-taking
• Boundary Pushing
• Reflection
• Celebration

Successful projects will involve students who take on one or more of these roles as part of a team in producing a final project product.

Getting Started

The “big project” for students is their inquiry-based investigation of a community problem. In this program, we are specifically interested in students exploring environmental problems. In the sections to follow, as well as in each content area (Air, Land, Fresh Water, and Marine), we offer tips and activities (including lab experiments) for teachers to “unpack” the content in such a way that will allow students to investigate environmental topics with confidence. Use the following five steps and work with your students to construct Community Problem Solving opportunities for your classroom.

The Steps:

1. “Frontloading” students with necessary content knowledge
2. Beginning the Inquiry Process (select question/problem to explore)
3. Attacking the Question (student research)
4. Investigation (experiments and testing)
5. Presenting Information (results)

A fuller description of each step is provided below:

1. Frontload students with necessary content knowledge.

   It is important to note that although specific topics of study in open-inquiry are learner-initiated, it is not an academic “free-for-all.” There has to be an established, essential understanding (“big idea”) that serves as the basis for stimulating the student investigations. Unlike most packaged curricula, inquiry-based learning isn’t a predictable, cookie-cutter experience for every student. It is student-driven, providing them the unique opportunity to take ownership of the learning experience and allow their interests to guide their investigation. A student may be researching and feel that they are close to answering their original question, and then find themselves with an entirely new question that takes them back to the beginning of the research process. This is typical. True inquiry is an avenue that allows the learner the opportunity to learn and connect information in ways that make sense to his or her learning style. It is incredibly empowering for the students and rewarding for the teachers as they witness the students moving through the research process. The amount of frontloading necessary to prepare the students for independent research is dependent upon the schema that the teacher utilizes to focus the initial investigation. The primary focuses of each investigation are baseline questions that enable the teacher to identify conceptual understanding, but the student questions and subsequent research should not be limited to the primary focuses.

   For example, a baseline question might be: What are some causes of air pollution? Based on that starting point a student may seek to learn about alternative energy sources based on their initial understanding of electricity as a culprit of air pollution. She should be able to pursue this investigation as long as she can then relate it back to the original investigation on how air quality is important to the health of all living things.

   Using the Lesson Plans:

   The lesson plans attached to the investigations are meant to serve only as learning experiences that support the student research. THESE LESSONS ARE NOT THE RESEARCH ITSELF. These lesson plans will support your student investigations by providing a common foundation for all students to begin the investigation. Later, you may return to these lessons both to assist with clarity for those students who are struggling through the research process and as opportunity for application for those students who are successfully navigating the process. If you choose to have your students work in groups, select developmentally appropriate groupings designed to provide the most effective learning experience for all students. For example, if there is a student who is on the cusp of being able to conduct research independently it is important to group that student with others who are already confidently researching independently. The nature of this type of learning enhances the teacher's ability to differentiate the instruction for all levels of learners. Every student can find success through inquiry-based learning.

   Understanding the Inquiry Process

   Once the frontloading and primary investigations are complete, your students are now armed with the schema that they will need to successfully investigate and inquire on their own. It is important to remember three things when beginning an inquiry project:

   1. True inquiry is not a recipe that each child follows to reach success.
   2. The student must have an understanding of the primary investigation before deciding what he or she would like to target in the investigation.
   3. The teacher's role becomes less about instruction and more about facilitation. The job of the students is to take more ownership of the learning and to pursue the necessary investigations that lead to the answers or solutions that they seek.
2. Beginning the Inquiry Process (select question/problem to explore)
   To move on to the primary focuses that directly address the local community issues associated with this topic of study, the students are asked to reflect on the numerous activities that have established the foundation for their understanding of the topic. The teacher should then help guide the students in selecting an investigatable question that will help them further unpack the “Big Idea” of the unit. Each question should have a direct correlation between the understanding gained from previous activities and the application of that learning when attempting to seek a solution to a community problem. When generating questions, it will also be easy to identify natural student groupings based on common interests/investigations. It is also important to note that, although the inquiry process is individualized and each student can tailor his or her experiences to meet the needs of the investigation, emphasis should be placed on following the scientific method when working through an investigation.
3. Attacking the Question (student research)
   It is extremely important that the students have access to developmentally appropriate, kid-friendly, and informative websites, books, and periodicals. These resources will enable students to research and gain information leading lead them to an answer or solution to their question or community problem. Interviews, videos, and field trips are also integral pieces in the inquiry puzzle. Primary interviews can be the "a-ha" moment that a child needs to truly connect to the process. Field trips can be individualized – they do not have to include the whole class. Enlist the assistance of parents in getting the students to and from their field trips. Watching a video that addresses the issue that they are researching can often be a catalyst for generating a solution to the problem.
4. Investigation (experiments and testing)
   Depending on the question/community issue, there may be times when ongoing experiments are necessary to support or refute a hypothesis that the student has generated. Additionally, the students may need to access data from experiments that scientists (or other members of their communities working on the same issues) have previously conducted or that are currently in process. As you observe your students through this process, you will notice that there is no clear-cut path. They will flow in and out of the steps as they acquire new information. Once they reach the decision that they have enough information to propose a solution to their problem, they may have been through the process several times. Teachers should address this when beginning the inquiry process.
5. Presenting Information (results)
   As they move through the inquiry process, students may have many ideas for how they wish to express their knowledge and proposed solution. Some examples of how students can present their information can include, but aren't limited to, media presentations, documentaries, brochures, poster boards, games, dioramas, skits, letters to administration or local/ state/federal offices, or community awareness events. The opportunities for presenting what they've learned are only limited to their imaginations.